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The importance of theatre to the Elizabethan sensibility
4. THE IMPORTANCE OF THEATRE TO THE ELIZABETHAN SENSIBILITY Development of the English Drama drama of the Middle Ages ''had 3 sources: 1. Pagan rituals, Celtic rituals, i. e. Fertility myths (mýty plodnosti) etc. 2. Latin and Greek plays – played were at schools where Latin and Greek was taught. Quite exclusive audience. # Christian rituals – liturgical dramas – accessible to the whole population. Took part during the services, feasts, Christmas. About Christ’s martyrdom. Stories of the Old Testament, etc. Gradually developed a sort of dialogue. They became longer, grew less religious, then spread outside to the churchyard, finally they were driven out. The Church tried to push back the drama of Rome in the 6th cent. – now it became the promoter of drama. '''tropes' – dialogue between priest and people, they were sung themes – resurrection – zmrtvýchvstání, etc. Queen Quaeritis – about three matyres, coming to Christ's tomb (= Mastičkář) development> 'miracles and mysteries' Dialogues completely nonreligious, spoken in English, played by tradesmen on special occasions, played on the day of Corpus Christi - boží tělo, people went to towns on this day to see miracles or mysteries. Realised by guildsmen. Each guild prepared some drama according to their work, bakers played about the Last suppers, arrowmakers played about he passion (pašije), each guild had its own cart – pageant – a stage, could be dragged through the town and they could play everywhere. The plays were done in order according to the Bible, the last was about the day of judgement. Many reoccuring characters appeared, i. e. a shrew – hádavá bába, Abraham’s grief at sacrifying his son. Miracles and mysteries were religious plays, used themes from the Bible. York Cycle – almost 50 short plays giving a nice picture of Old an New Testament. Played on several stages or cars. On the stage of the Middle Ages belonged dancers, mimes, travelling comedians. They lived outside the community. Before first moralities there are some notes about small theatre companies at nobility courts or travelling. Non-religious features started to appear in the plays, biblical characters started to change into English people. development> 'morality' 2nd half of the 15th cent. Still partly religious, the topic is not taken directly form the Bible, through allegory. The morals are given through dialogues. Plays were presented for common people. The best known moralist play - Everyman (Kdožkolivěk) – the Death appears to him, asks his fellows to accompany him, two friends – Knowledge and Good-deeds (very abstract characters – feature of morality). Miracles and mysteries were popular for a long time, but died out slowly due to politic and religious reasons. development> 'Interludes ' First intended to entertain, less didactic, secular, popular at noble courts, authors of interludes played by the gentry themselves. Themes from Roman mythology, some more ambitious. Usually made by one author, not anonymous, just a dramatic dialogues. * Thomas More – none of his interludes survived * John Heywood – wrote lots of interludes, 2 – 3 of them appear. Played occasionally at special occasions, without any didactic purpose The four Ps – based on a lying context, four P people – palmer, pardoner, pothecary, peddler, they have to tell a story about nature of women, who tells the highest lie is the winner, it’s palmer who says nowhere he met a woman who lost her patience Moralities and interludes existed side by side, miracles survived reformation. Drama developed quickly. 1st professional players, 1st groups, played in the capital and traveled through the provinces. They found it necessary to protect themselves. The patron – sometimes ordered the play, they use his name, they played at the courtyards of inns. They put boards on barels. People watched from the balcony. Development to today’s type of drama in the 50s of 16th cent. Renaissance brought education and aroused interest in history and the ancient civilizations. 1'st' theatre - The Theatre – 1567 * Built by a famous actor Burbage. Built outside the boundary of the city of London, in the 1590s. There were 3 or 4 theatres in London. There could be 2000 – 3000 people in the theatre. They were close to actors. Female characters were played by boys, they used the expensive costumes of their rich patrons or stolen ones. There were no coulisses on the stage. * by the end of the century there were 8 more theatres, their names after the inn: the Swan , The Rose , * so many theatres needed more plays * by some schools – Choristers – performed regularly for the public, the competition helped to the development of drama, various types of plays, actors 1563 – 1'st' real comedy, dividing into acts, regular plot, Ralph Roister Doister by Nicolas Udall * comedy of love * the hero is the most comic character * perhaps Shakespeare was inspired by it 1'st' tragedy – by Thomas Norton and Thomas Sackville : Gorboduc or Ferrex and Porrex , king and his sons, first play written in blank verse. Unity of time, space and action. Intended to show Queen Elizabeth and the people the dangers of doubtful succession to throne. Taken from mythological time of British history. ballads - comes from French; they were anonymously authored; they were sung for centuries before being recorded, they described important events that happened in the country or community - folk ballad - simplest and oldest, they commemorated an event. Return of the dead was typical. - minstrel ballad - professional traveling singers; more complex, longer, about larger topics (battles) - coronach ballad of lament - personal, lyrical; a reaction to a tragedy Renaissance Elizabethan period 1558 - 1603 2nd half of 16th cent. – begin. of 17th century Artistic level of English drama was increasing. Very dramatic cultural atmosphere. Contrasting attitudes, economic and social statuses. The monarchy had to face the ever growing capitalistic economy. Elizabeth was able to gain from it. The conflict of Spain and England can be seen as the conflict of traditional Catholicism and new English Protestantism. English patriotism grew. Conflicts were growing and sharpening. Playwrites reacted in their own way. Some sympathized with the Queen. The court, experience a kind of late rehabilitation of knightship and sympathized with celebrating of courty wits and ideals (Spenser , Lyly , Sidney , Fletcher and Beaumont later). Some other lived in town or bohemian environment (Heywood). 16th/17th century – a crisis of humanism, lost of illusions. Shakespeare now has tragic period. He is characteristic for English renaissance in the sense that his work portrayes folk traditions. English theatre began to take interest in social problems in sense of humanism of Thomas More. Previous to the 16th century, the development of main genres was stressed. Strong individualities began to appear among playwrites. Plays were influenced by *the reformation *renaissance after reformation the queen in England was the head of the church. She controlled everything. Theatrical activities too. It was quite dangerous to produce plays with a religious theme. The queen established a Master of revels – he supervised theatre, organised entertainment for the court. * Elizabeth I. – only the noble men could be patrons of a group of players * James I. allowed only himself to be a patron * 8 theatres – actors were versatile and could play tragedies and comedies, could sing dance. Only men could appear on the stage. Plays were narated by a boy plays were long, quite realistic. Admittance was cheep. In the times of plague theatres were closed. * People wanted entertainment and excitement. During the Elizabethan reign – there were many types of plays. * Plays with historical events * Anti-Catholic plays celebrating England * Bloody tragedies * Love comedies * Farcical plays The late Elizabethan years – the best times of English drama. * Audiences were intended to be awed by the power od God. Early 16th century different attitudes formed towards the role of drama. Drama was criticized by Puritans. Dramatists criticized Puritanism (at Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night.). In 1737 parliament passed a Licensing Act . Enacting strict censorship of plays. Thomas More * humanist, prose writer, a leading English intellectual and statesman, humanist and scholar * History of King Richard III written in English * we know he wrote some plays but we can’t find them * Utopia , new learning, humanism, written in Latin, translated into English. Tnfluenced by discovering the New World. Island is a perfect society. It’s narrated by a sailor who traveled with A. Vespuci. On the island everything is perfect. People have enough to eat and cloths to wear. They have to work. The play compares the situation on the island with England. * He was an advisor to Henry VIII., he was executed. * He also wrote poetry Drama and theatre became very popular. Educated people were involved too. Special groups of authors were chosen by Henry VIII. and Elizabeth – educated people - University Wits> John Lyly - wrote comedies: Endymion – about love between the moon and a mortal - Also wrote in prose: Euphuism jufjúis or the Anatomy of Wit & Euphues and his England, completely new style, euphuestic style = elaborate and full of metaphor, alliteration, allusions from mythology. This style became extremely popular, better development of prose, later followed, parodied, in Shakespeare Robert Greene 1558-1592 - one of the popular, great author of the 16th cent. and a half of the 17th cent., wrote comedies and tragedies, contributed to development of comedy, jealous of Shakespeare The Honorable History of Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay '', ''- two Friars are great friends. The have magic powers. They produce a kind of a television. A metal bracen head that can speak. They believe it can reveal the secret of the universe. It will speak only once and only for a short while. They watch it. Bacon keeps watching, suddenly it speaks: “The time is coming. Time has come. Time is gone.” then the head is broken.' 2 contemporaries of Shakespeare: Thomas Kyd 1558 – 1594 * known as drunkard, bohemian, great friend of Marlowe * the 1st revenge tragedy in English Spanish tragedy – father revenges the death of his son. A play within a play. The motive of madness. Starts as play about love but turns to bloody tragedy. Final scene with a lot of dead bodies was popular. Christopher Marlowe 1564-1593 - first English dramatist to use blank verse effectively and extensively. He was the forerunner of Shakespeare – centred tragedies on one main character *accused of being without religious belief, drunker, fighting, friend of Kyd, his career had just started when he died, wrote a lot of plays: Tamburlaine the Great * Two part play, written in blank verse. Violent. Tamburlaine is a historical figure. Conqueror of Near and Middle East. Play follows his life from youth to death. He began as a shepherd and robber, became the dictator of N. and M. East. He killed his only son. * This play was well received. Played by several companies. The time of voyages. Tamburlaine at his time stood as a symbol of power ready to challenge God, death = symbolic The Famous Tragedy of the Rich Jew of Malta * the whole play is a provocation (economic, national), the hero – Barabas (allusion on Bible), a rich Jew, becomes a villain, murderer. He is pushed through his environment. Muslim ideology. * Empty religious(?) play, plot – full of blood, Barabas is a rich citizen. Everything is confiscated by the governor of Malta. The governor must pay tribute to the Turks. Barabas swears revenge to governor and to Muslims. He poisons the whole convent in Malta (also his daughter). In the end he dies, falls into hot water (prepared for sb. Else). No matter what religion >> only quarrels, evil * at present this play compared to Shakespeare The Tragical history of Doctor Faustus * first great history of humanism. We don’t know the whole text because of censorship. There are some moments of black comedy. Played by Edward Alleyn. People believed hiim a real devil which appeared on the stage. Theme – Faustus is a talented scholar. He longs for knowledge. To satisfy this desire he makes a contract with devil to get knowledge, experience. Last scene – the struggle to save body and soul (the struggle between the renaissance and Middle Ages Edward II, The Massacre at Paris, Hero and Leander Ben Johnson * Shakespeare’s contemporary. Wasn’t a university wit but become one of the most educated people of that time. He was a soldier and fought in Flanders. He had to deal with critics, poets, wrote number of plays, works of prose, poetry * he invented a genre called comedy of humours - it is one-dimensional, without any philosophy, characters (humours) are bearers of one dominant feature ''Every Man in his Humor * every character has his particular whim, they are type characters * “Humor” meant special kind of character, they are mixed * Johnson characterized his characters according to these types Volpone or the Fox * satiric comedy, study of the passion of greed. All people show greed in this play. Type characters, type names taken from it. language (volpone - fox, mosca - fly, voltore - vulture) * love of money, gold. Pretends to be dying. Promises people money in his will. People give him great gifts for the promise. One of them brings his own wife. * His plays are different from Shakespeare’s. He doesn’t show the complexity of the society The Alchemist (Vančura was inspired by it), * tragic drama, written in blank verse * had many activities, wrote masques at the court the masque - a special type of court drama, which became popular in the 17th century. It was performed at courts and aristocratic houses on elaborately arranged stages. It combined dramatic entertainment with music, dancing, and exotic costumes. A kind of entertainment to dress extravagantly. * Inigo Jones x Jones – fight about the importance of costumes and importance of writing, Jones wins * Johnson was popular at the court, 1st poet laureate, a title given by the king, king’s and queen’s poet, just a title. later in 17th century John Dryden , was given some kind of money. Duty to write some poems form special occasions. England still has a poet laureate. The possition is held for 10 years, today Andrew Motion(Breaking news guys! His term has ended, now it's this chick.) Masque of the Queens #* Czech heroine Valasca, lyric – puts into songs, very popular “Drink to me only with thine eyes” Johnson – mostly realistic, contemporary, x Shakespeare – romantic, timeless. Johnson – documentary in detail, made a link to a future kind of drama – comedy of manners. Two streams of drama: court drama and popular drama. Because of this division, changes of social condition, in England. Two parties – middle classes and aristocrats. Drama was written specially for court, or for the middle classes. Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher * both together and individually wrote plays * tragedy King or No King – theme of power, incest, divinity of the king John Webster wrote tragedies full of blood, madness, torture, some of this dramas took place in Italy The Duchess of Malfi , The White Devil '' '1603 - 1625 James I., ''' came to throne. A puritan. Puritans hated theaters. In 1642 the theaters were closed. In 1660 they were re-opened after the restoration. Two camps: nobility (wealthy land owners, supported king, established religion of England) and people who lived in towns, didn’t own land, but because of trade became middle class. Religious question was different. Beginning of political parties: the cavaliers (Tory) and the roundheads (Puritans) – Whigs, most part puritan. Puritans wanted to purify religion (Christianity). They told people should work, pray. That they shouldn’t have entertainment. Were against ornaments at home and churches. Were intolerant to charity, every pleasure was sin. Gained power, leader of Puritan party was Oliver Cromwell, later ruler of England. =Oliver Cromwell - when he got to power, became unmerciful in enforcing puritan values, totalitarian reign. Church and state became one. There were a lot of punishments – fines. Theaters, pubs were closed. Nice dresses were not allowed. To feast Christmas was not allowed. People very soon got tired of it. = #* after his death came king Charles II. #* all the changes were in literature too Early modern English (the language of Shakespeare) - it was different from today’s English, some words do not exist any more, and others had the same form but a different meaning. Most important grammatical feature is the use of the second person singular form thou (you), the (accusative), thine (yours). The verb form ended in -est or -st: thou seest (you see), thou didst (you did). Some verbs had an irregular form: thou hast (you have), thou art (you are), he doth (he does). The language was more flexible, grammatical rules were not yet codified completely. Word order is very variable.